#all my tolkein stuff is staying in one place thanks

[qrovidcore]

what was the one thing @potatoobsessed999 and i were not supposed to do?

come up with another silm au.

and what did we do?

came up with another silm au.

anyway, because neither of us will ever write this but both of us WILL make pleading faces at the rest of the fandom until someone writes it for us we both independently started typing it up in bullet points Immediately after talking to each other about it and then had a spiderman meme moment about that, we present to you:

Would You Rather Fight 1 Morgoth-Sized Morgoth Or 1000 Noldor-Sized Noldor, And Why Is It 1 Morgoth-Sized Morgoth

in which

morgoth is, presumably, about 5% smarter, and keeps his mouth shut about the silmarils when he shows up to formenos to convince feanor to leave with him

or, at least keeps his mouth shut about the silmarils long enough that feanor does not say his girlboss line and slam the door in his face, and actually considers his offer

fine, says feanor, i do want to leave aman actually, but i’m bringing my seven angry sons and also my dad and also maybe a few hundred of my most loyal followers with me

(not that finwe would trust morgoth as far as he could throw him, but also is finwe letting his kid run off after him by himself? oh hell no, he’s going too)

i did say presumably smarter

because morgoth is probably not counting on all of this, he probably just wanted to kill feanor and get the silmarils and get out before the rest of the valar, who have at this point caught onto his shit, are able to toss him in the void about it

fine. morgoth does not have time to argue about this, so now he’s helping a few hundred feanorians cross the helcaraxe. This Is Fine^tm.

they probably all survive the ice okay, but of course morgoth turns on them and starts trying to kill them all the second he’s in shouting distance of angband.

because finwe’s job is to go down fighting morgoth when he should probably not be fighting morgoth, finwe goes down fighting morgoth.

because finwe’s job is also to die and emotionally devastate feanor in the process, feanor Sees.

and goes after morgoth himself.

and because feanor’s job is to die avenging his dad and then proceed to haunt the narrative, feanor, much like in canon, gets got.

at which point morgoth steals the silmarils and also the sons of feanor, and then runs back to angband before the valar can get across the ice to come throw him in the void.

because morgoth is busy trying not to let the valar catch him and throw him in the void, a decent number of feanorian followers escape. they have a very tiny baby celebrimbor with them!! no worries!! all babies remain okay!!!

unfortunately, the valar get there too late to do anything. fortunately, news does get back to the rest of finwe’s kids that suddenly a feanorian host, including feanor himself and also the high king of the noldor, have disappeared with morgoth across the ice? yeah that’s probably not good right.

yeah that’s probably not good right, say fingolfin and finarfin, resigning themselves to going marching over to middle-earth to rescue their stubborn older brother and also maybe to convince him that they do actually love him

not that that last part will ever happen. not when they just get there to find him dead.

because feanor is not there to go petition the teleri for boats, this job now falls to fingolfin and finarfin. without feanor there, the first kinslaying never happens. with finarfin there, the teleri can perhaps be talked into giving the noldor an uber ride.

the fact that the darkening also never happened, and therefore everyone is not panicking quite as much, does help also.

anyway, fingolfin and finarfin’s hosts show up just in time to find everything gone fairly to shit.

the sons of feanor are in angband, you say? maedhros is in angband, you say? well I’m going to angband then, says fingon.

this is definitely not as controversial, since there was never a boat burning either! but also it’s angband and clearly this is stupid and dangerous and Fingon Is Going Alone.

or so fingon insists

you see, aredhel and finrod probably never hung out themselves much, but they were both close with celegorm and curufin. they absolutely all used to go mud wrestling together on the weekends. and shared grief sure does have a way of bringing people together, and so they bond over missing their favorite cousins.

and, much like merry and pippin, end up Planning A Conspiracy^tm

and so this is how fingon, finrod, and aredhel go marching into angband on a mission to Get The Sons Of Feanor Back

unfortunately, none of them know how to find a good entrance to angband.

fortunately, they do find maedhros, who does know how to find a good entrance to angband.

maedhros’ rescue happens just like in canon, because maedhros’ job is to be a Symbol^tm, so of course he’s strung up on a mountain so that the rest of the feanorians will despair about it (separating him from his brothers so that maglor can do his job of despairing about being in charge in any capacity is also important). maedhros’ rescue happens just like in canon also because maedhros is frodo and fingon is sam, and if we are doing fellowship parallels then We Are Doing Fellowship Parallels, and who could ever take their singing rescue away from them <3

maedhros, dying of blood loss: i know where my brothers are and i’m going in with you.

fingon: maedhros you are dying of blood loss. no.

maedhros: yes.

fingon: no.

maedhros: yes.

fingon: fine.

and so fingon proceeds to lug a dying but stubborn maedhros down into angband. who, to his credit, is helpful in finding his brothers.

they’re probably all still alive because they’re useful (curufin, for smith reasons) or because it’s fun to make them despair. in any case, the team gets them out, and the rescue is going well.

well enough that amrod delays in an attempt to try to steal back the silmarils

instead of dying in the hopes of not having to reclaim the silmarils, amrod dies for the hope that such a thing is possible.

the others get out alive.

amrod’s death is what prompts the remaining sons to finish the job and get the silmarils back.

but! there is no oath! and there is no family feud! the finweans all reunite and successfully begin to plan an attack.

and well, there was no first kinslaying, or any kinslaying at all actually. thingol’s on decent terms with the feanorian survivors who wound up around/in doriath, and has no reason to distrust any of the noldorin leaders.

sure, there’s no humans involved yet, but also that means no traitors yet.

so the union of maedhros is much smaller, but also. it’s stronger. by a lot.

AND it happens like right away.

morgoth doesn’t have time to invent dragons. morgoth doesn’t have time to know what HIT him. a thousand angry noldor are In His House and they have a thousand angry sindar with them and morgoth folds in about five minutes tops.

and this is how a united front of angry finweans could’ve overthrown morgoth in a fun family weekend road trip. thank you for coming to our tedtalk.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Sarah Ellen Parsons

Sarah Ellen Parsons has 18 X-Files stories at Gossamer and 19 at AO3. If you want high quality fic with interesting characters, go read her stories. Some of my favorites of her fics are The Crouching Thing and My Constant Touchstone Who Makes Me A Whole Person (which are two very different stories!). Big thanks to Sarah Ellen for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

With today's binge-watching culture, I'm not at all surprised. You can watch a bunch of eps and then seek out fic that is where you are in the series.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I took away a writer's group Yes, Virginia, that is still together.  Mostly as friends, but whenever I write something, or someone else writes something, it's the first place we all run for machete beta. I have betad SO MANY novels.

We have a number of folks who are published writers since then and our time in X-Files fic brought us lifelong friendships IRL and made us all better at our craft. The majority of those folks were better writers than I am. And I make my living as a writer in my day-job.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I belonged to a couple of the largest lists and posted there and bitched about the show on usenet with everyone else.  We had our own Yahoo group for beta.  We all had crappy GeoCities websites that we programmed the HTML for ourselves and hooked through various fandom link circles to get traffic to our stories.  But the main method of distribution was the lists.

Fun fact, I found a free page counter thing that I used at work one time through fandom. So fandom pays off in skillz.

Even without social media, we managed to get our stories in front of readers who would enjoy them. Where there's a will, there's always someone ready to step up and find a way.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Again, I have lifelong friends IRL that I got solely from fanfiction. That's the best takeaway.

Fandom disappointed me because it, like everything else, is ruined by people's egos, backstabbing, and petty people who get in positions of power and then use those positions to punch down or dictate. I was young when I was writing X-Files and I still had hope that people would rise to their better natures, so I got involved in various futile efforts to try to make people behave the way I wanted them to behave, I guess. I did a lot of public bitching that didn't serve me or my friends well. I now put that effort into politics, where it does actual good.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

X-files was made for me. It combined science fiction, mystery, horror.  I love all of those genres. Plus there was Scully. No matter how sexist that writer's room was, Scully was awesome. But you kept seeing bad writing. Even in the heyday seasons, like Season 3, there were really terrible eps that made you want to fix things.

I'm a lifelong speculative fiction fan and a published feminist science fiction author. I actually was published before I fell down the fic hole. I got involved in fanfic due to getting my fantasy novel turned down from every major publisher for being "too dark". And I needed to get readers to see my stuff to prove to myself that I wasn't terrible at writing. I got a ton of feedback and it was like market research to see what people wanted to read.

My time in fanfiction made me 100% a better writer than I was.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I went to the X-Files Expo to see if I could make contact with someone from Harper Collins because the tie-in novels sucked so hard.  I got rejected with my pitch as I didn't have a literary agent.

Around that time, a pal who I watched X-Files with IRL was looking for a free X-files wallpaper for her work computer when she found the website where fans in Pennsylvania had fic archived. She read some and wrote to me - "you need to see this, and you can do better."  So I started reading and was.... I probably CAN do better. So I wrote The Batman Plot. And made two friends I'm still friends with with that one story.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Nonexistent.  I couldn't even watch the latest season and I saw only 2 of season one of whatever that was before I gave up. I have never watched the second movie.

X-files is my first fandom bad ex-husband. I loved it SO MUCH, but it betrayed me.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I was deep into Harry Potter for a while, but I didn't end up publishing anything in it. All my stories were novel-length and I was writing so much for work, I never completed anything. I called Snape/Lily when Prisoner of Azkaban was published and got Jossed by Rowling in one of my big ideas. (This is bad fandom ex-husband 2. JKR will never get a dime of money from me again because of her hateful stance on transfolk. I have RL friends who are trans and NO.)

I wrote fic in Supernatural. It was the obvious next thing after X-Files. However, the misogyny and bringing in all the Angel/Devil Christofascist stuff lost me. The ep where they declared all other religions other than Christianity as invalid and killed a Hindu god made me stop watching for good. I know enough Christofascists IRL that I can't tolerate it in my fiction. (Bad fandom ex-husband 3)

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

This list is far too long to actually make.  But characters I spent time writing about include: Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Co. (I wrote three unpublished Star Trek novels before I found online fandom). King Arthur and Morgan Le Fay, Sherlock Holmes (I wrote a Sherlock Holmes play after seeing "Crucifer of Blood" and entered it in a national competition, where I got very nice comments back.), Mulder, Scully and Krycek, Rowling's Hermione and Snape (like him or not, its masterful characterization), Dean and Sam Winchester, John Winchester and Bobby Singer.  I wrote one comedy story starring Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  A couple of Roswell stories under a different name. Catwoman and Batman. I have some unpublished Avengers fanfic lying around as I'm an OG Marvel fan with a massive comic collection.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I was on a business trip a few years ago and FX had a marathon and I watched part of it when I was in my hotel room. Early seasons are comforting, but I don't go back there now.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I don't read X-Files fic anymore. I read a tiny bit of Star Wars after the second movie because Rian Johnson had it right. Now I don't care. I love Mandalorian, but am content to watch.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Too many to count.  All of YV. Which reminds me, I need to go update our entry at Fanlore. I promised Punk I'd do it a while back.  I need to at least get everyone linked.  Right now it's only Punk and Sab.

But it was a ton of us.  Marasmus, Maria Nicole, Cofax, CazQ, M. Sebasky, Livia Balaban, Kelly Keil, Wen, Ropobop, Jess Mabe, JET, fialka, and a bunch of others that I can't remember their fic names any more, just their real names because I know them all IRL. I need to go back and look up their fic names and link them up there.

In addition to my little group of pals, I loved reading Mustang Sally and Rivka T, Rachel Anton - I keep trying to find her to encourage her to write romance if she's not doing it already, but no dice, Dasha K., Anjou, there were so many great ones, but their names have slipped my mind in the past 20 years.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I'm most known for Prone, and I'm proud of that story for all kinds of reasons, but I think my very best is The Crouching Thing.

I mostly didn't publish anything I didn't think was good and hadn't been machete betaed within an inch of its life, but I'm not sure much of the angsty romance stuff holds up as well. I think it worked when the show was still ON and we were all in that emotional headspace, but probably not now.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

Funny you ask. I am currently reworking a plot idea I had for an X-Files fic into a contemporary M/M novel, which I will publish under a different pen-name. The plot is the idea I had for X-Files, the characters are very, very different other than one is uptight and the other more easy-going. But no more Mulder and Scully.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I have been making my living as a writer for 25 years. I write the word count equivalent of 5 Tolkein novels a year, just for my day-job.  I am turning back to original fiction, which is where I was before X-Files.  I'm working on the M/M thing, a high fantasy thing, a low fantasy historical thing and a bunch of M/F Regency romances as I get time and energy.  I publish Fantasy and SF under my real name. Romance has pen names as you don't want that getting back to your workplace, either.

SEP is fic only and here she will stay.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I have too many ideas to count.  I try to write them down when they come, so I won't forget. At least the outline of the idea. Often a scene. I've been like this my entire life. I started writing novels seriously at 15. I wrote a 500 plus page one about Morgan Le Fay during breaks in high school because "Mists of Avalon" pissed me off so bad as I'd read the original source material and that was a Wicca recruitment polemic.

What's the story behind your pen name?

Sarah Ellen was my great-grandma, Parsons was her grandma's last name.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

Half my friends ARE fic friends. Most of my friends know as does my brother, who thinks writing for free is dumb. This is universally agreed on by non-fic friends who know. My mother still doesn't know about the fic. Just the "real" writing.  I write under a pen name to keep it away from my job and my published work.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

My X-files stuff is up on Gossamer mostly. I'm trying to get the stories all moved to AO3 for all the genres. I'm working on this now.  SEP is really not a living thing anymore, but there was a time when she was more me than me.

If you want to find my "real" non-fic writing, write to me at se_parsons at yahoo dot com and I will point you at it.

And PLEASE someone, hunt down Rachel Anton and get her writing something we all can BUY.  Where are my old Krycek bitches at?  Do any of you know where she is? [Lilydale note: I’ve tried contacting Rachel Anton for this Old School X project but have not had luck. I would love to find her too!]

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

The community I loved has mostly moved on, but I think we left a legacy of solid work crafted out of our love for the show.  Find a living community you love for a show you love.  There are great people out there creating and get involved.  It will be worth it.

(Posted by Lilydale on December 15, 2020)

[bastionkeeper]

Hi! I love your writing and I was wondering if you had a sort of system for writing longer pieces? And if you have any advice for getting better at writing? I'm trying to practice writing more so I thought asking more experienced writers would be a great place to start! Thank you, and keep up the great work! Have a great day!

oh jeez I’m an experienced writer? I’m so fucking flattered okay uh here’s Tina’s Writing Tips

1. No one knows what they’re doing. Case in point? You thought I knew what I was doing and when you told me I went “?????” don’t expect to wake up an accomplished writer, you’re always gonna make mistakes and that’s chill

2. Read a lot. The more you read the better you are at writing your brain just soaks that stuff up and it shows in your writing. I recommend the Artemis Fowl series if you wanna learn about writing good characters and anything by Peter S. Beagle if you wanna learn about weaving a compelling story.

3. longer pieces are especially hard, I have yet to breach like forty pages. Mainly just keep yourself interested in your own story and don’t be afraid to take breaks. Write a bunch of short things during your break to keep yourself in the groove of things.

4. Write fanfiction! Working with a pre-established setting and group of characters gives you good practice with staying in character and remembering facts about worlds and shit like that.

5. Borrow and steal. J.K. Rowling stole so much from Tolkein and she made BANK. I mean don’t just steal ideas lol but look at what other writes do and take note of what sort of things you like about their style that you wanna emulate in your own.

6. write shitty stories. Don’t sit at the computer petrified at the idea of a bad story. If you don’t write now you’ll never write and you’ll never get better. There’s this really inspiring scene in Brooklyn 99 where Jake reminds Terry that it took him awhile to become a good cop and it took mistakes and years of learning, so he shouldn’t give up on writing just cause his first ever story sucked.

7. Get feedback from other people. I took a lot of writing classes the past two years of college and hearing feedback from my prof and my classmates really helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses. Writers ain’t nothing without readers.

Okay that’s all I can think of for now, once again I’m so flattered you thought of me as a writing role model I’m gonna go blush and cry about it forever, best of luck to you with your writing sweetheart I hope to see your stories someday~!

[bluecichlid]

5,7,8, 30

5. Books or authors thatinfluenced your style the most

No single one. I’ve saidin a previous ask that a big influence has been a fantasy author calledPatricia McKillip.  A lot of her stuff isold now, but she’s one of the most amazing fantasy writers ever.  This link is to the entire text of her bookThe Forgotten Beasts of Eld, although I’m not sure it is there legally, so ifyou read the first few pages and like it, please buy the kindle copy.  I’m including the link because her stuff canbe hard to find these days and she’s such an amazing author that I really thinkanyone who is interested in fantasy should read her.  

I’ve also been reallyinfluenced by mystery writers and how carefully constructed their plots have tome – Agatha Christie, obviously, but also Issac Asmiov, who is a mystery writerat heart.  I love Tolkein, who is so muchmore complicated and nuanced in his handling of stories than he gets creditfor.  And I will always love Terry Pratchettfor too many reasons to count, but particularly his wit.  Reading him has helped me be more fearless inmy writing.  

7. Favorite author.

Probably see above, butI’d also add GRRM, obviously.  I didn’tinclude him in the influences just because I only came on his work in the lastcouple of years.  A couple of authors Iread a long time ago but have really stayed with me for their combination ofscience, mysticism, and wonder are Madelaine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) andDiane Duane (So You Want to Be a Wizard). Dave Barry and a Canadian writer called Gordon Korman are two of the funniestpeople I’ve ever read.  CJ Cherryh’sForeigner books are a series I keep going back to over and over – they are mycomfort food.  

8. Favorite trope to write.

I don’t know that Ireally have one as such, but I love writing UST in all its shapes andforms.  I’m also playing around with aWIP (not to see the light of day until my current projects are done) that isall about mistaken identity.  Aegon VI isin his Young Griff disguise and he goes to the Vale and meets Alayne.  They fall in love, but think they can’t marrybecause each thinks the other is too low born. Hijinks ensure.  It is a LOT offun.  :)

30. Favorite line you’veever written.

I did a few of these last time, but here’s a couple more:

Ties of Blood and Fire, Tyrion’s note to Aegon on behalf of Sansa:

You bloody, blithering, idiot -- Are you serious? Fuck off, and go fix things with your own wife.

Tyrion

Addam Marbrand in the Godswood in They Lost Their Wolves:

The snow crunched under Addam’s boots as he walked between the trees.  It was a warm day by the standards of the north in winter, and some of the snow and ice was disappearing under  the combination of the noon-day sun and the heat latent beneath the earth.  In places, the ice had melted away from beneath, leaving a sheet of ice thin as paper suspended over a depression. In a moment of whimsy in the midst of this dark place, he stepped on one and heard a satisfying crackle as it broke.  He remembered doing the same as a boy in the Year of the False Spring.  By the time the true spring had arrived, he thought, he had been at war, and a man.

Thanks for the asks!